Tag: NaNoPoblano

The Girl on the Train so far has been a thrilling read. It usually takes me more than a couple weeks to read a book with more than 300 pages and of this caliber. I’m a slow reader and like to take in the details and make sure I understand what I’m reading, creating the images in my mind of the characters, their actions, and the environment.

Here’s a passage from this great book:

I’m not quite sure what is going on in the story just yet as there doesn’t seem to be much reasoning behind the plot. A girl named Megan gets kidnapped and then Rachel known as “the girl on the train” spends the next couple chapters trying to find her, intertwined between stories of her affairs with a doctor and her drinking episodes. I’m about 100 pages from the conclusion to this bestselling novel that is now a movie. As with the last 100 pages of many thrilling mystery novels, I expect to get excited and anticipated about turning pages and seeing what will happen next.

For #NaNoPlobano2016 Day 29. No, I haven’t posted every day in November as this challenge calls for but have decided that I should at least try to see what this is all about.

Books are still a major part of our culture and will not die as long there is always a new generation of writers and authors bubbling on the horizon. I’m not exactly a bookworm but I enjoy a good read every once in a while when my mind is clear enough to comprehend and concentrate on the words.

This Thanksgiving, my family is ditching the bird because of being so tired of eating turkey and feeling full afterward, not being able to eat another bite. That dry meat doesn’t exactly go down well even with gravy.

Which is why this Thanksgiving, me and the rest are going a different way:

The German Way: Ertedankfest.

photo credit: avso.org

There will be a couple of foods native to German culture:

German potato salad, German bratwurst (which is a redundant saying because all bratwursts are German), some Heineken beer (a German lager), sauerkraut, and pasta salad (okay, that’s not German, it’s Italian, but close enough (Italy is just underneath Germany on the map).

This is always an anticipated holiday, even if the family is slowly getting smaller (and less enthusiastic about it). Football is the centerpiece of the day, with the annual Detroit Lions Thanksgiving Day game always a national spectacle. The Lions play the Vikings this year, a rarity on this day. They largely take control of the division if they win but slip to second if they lose.

We had a pre-Thanksgiving last night that consisted of turkey, cranberry sauce, rolls, deviled eggs, and stuffing. Pretty light and easy to put away.

I just bought a pair of gold colored headphones the other day, which is a first, even if it’s just a cosmetic thing that makes no difference on the sound quality. They sound like dynamite but of course aren’t Bose, which is the standard for great headphones. Most of my headphones either short out in one side or break in half or I accidentally rip the headphone jack from the cord after standing up with the headphones still connected to the computer and over my head.

There’s nothing like listening to some of my favorite songs with a comfortable pair of head-speakers. These are made by Vivitar, a company also known for producing cameras.

1. You take way too many selfies
2. Constantly checking your Facebook posts for likes and comments
3. You get depressed when you don’t receive any attention on the latest selfie you uploaded to Facebook, Instagram, etc.
4. You expect admiration from others in order to feel better.
5. You have no empathy for others, no feeling
6. No shame for your actions
7. You see yourself as perfect, creating an illusion
8. Very arrogant and boastful
9. Envious of others successes and attributes, you want to put others down
10. Can’t see the world from someone else’s perspective

The object of life is to come in first
Get behind the wheel, quench your thirst
Racing the asphalt, so hot under sun
Outlasting your competition, the battle be won
The thrill of victory, the agony of defeat
The beauty of it all
Is so bittersweet
And now you are
In the driver’s seat
A whole lot of options
As life continues on repeat

History has been made, even if some don’t totally agree with the thought of it.

NASCAR Sprint Cup driver Jimmie Johnson won his seventh championship tonight, tying Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt, Sr. on the all-time list. It is quite a monumental achievement, since not many would have thought the number would be caught after Dale Earnhardt won his seventh in 1994, 22 years ago. Jeff Gordon won four very quickly and there was a great possibility that he could have won more had the Chase not been implemented and Jimmie Johnson hadn’t suddenly started tearing up the racing scene, but Johnson and co. have set a new standard that cannot be easily replicated now.

The historic run was completed in only 15 years and eight of those were run for the championships; Jimmie won all of his championships since winning his first in 2006, five in a row at one time. He now has 80 wins after winning at Homestead-Miami for the first time, just 13 from tying his mentor Jeff Gordon. The run has been quite efficient and if you do the math, that is at least 5 wins per year.

I’ve been watching NASCAR racing for 13 years now and have seen drivers come and go: old timers like Mark Martin, Rusty Wallace, and Bill Elliott and newcomers like Joey Logano and Kyle Larson. Of the 13 championship seasons that have come and gone, seven of those ended in a Jimmie Johnson victory, so yes, I have gotten to know this driver pretty well. In 2006, I managed to get his autograph at the airport as he and his wife were driving away in their SUV, he scribbling his short-hand signature on a piece of paper I had with me, looking like he was in a hurry to get out of there after having just raced at Michigan. That was the summer before he won his first championship and shortly after he won his third Coca-Cola 600 in a row. I still have that autograph, being stored in a yearbook of mine until I decide what to do with it once the X-time champ has finally retired.

There is nowhere to go but up now, to go for eight and possibly more. As long as Jimmie Johnson stays competitive, there is no end in sight for one of the greatest drivers of all-time. Sure, he won all of his titles in the Chase for the Championship era, an era that die-hard fans say isn’t real racing and is quite watered down, but hey, Jimmie won it fair and square and really is the only driver who has mastered the format in all of its versions over the years. After he won six, I like to say NASCAR tried to Jimmie-proof the Chase, making it harder to win the championship, but after getting a feel for it and failing at first, the team overcame the setbacks and claimed what was rightfully theirs: Lucky Number Seven.

The legendary Hendrick team of Johnson and Knaus have enjoyed scorching their competition and don’t look to be letting up just yet.